Talk:2981: Slingshots

Hi 172.71.150.236 03:02, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

Hi 172.70.210.5 04:27, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

'Lo172.69.195.201 10:14, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

We don't put tables in the transcript, which is supposed to be screen-readable. Tables are not screen-readable. Ianrbibtitlht (talk) 04:25, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

I now see the hidden "Tables are bad?" content in the incomplete transcript notice! Cute! Ianrbibtitlht (talk) 04:33, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

We should clarify that it's the American Dennis and not the British one. There are differences, which I learned the hard way :( 172.69.43.184 06:48, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

I expanded (and moved to a Trivia section) the interesting facts of this coincidence. (And I didn't add this link there, but maybe it's of "not even Trivia" interest, so you can have it here instead.) 172.70.86.37 10:53, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

I'm really surprised that "regular slingshot" is "no" for spacecraft instead of something like "not yet". SystemParadox (talk) 09:46, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

There's definitely spring-type "delivery systems" (analogues of the elastic slingshots, arguably) which hasten the detatchment of items on a multi-launch 'racked' delivery system. There's also the (proposed, SFAIK not yet tried in anger) rotating-tether release system, akin to biblical sling(shot)s, that would actually be what the gravitational slingshot is most similar to by pure analogy.

If we ever get a space-elevator and 'drop' things off from the counterweight station, then that would effectively be a biblical slingshot on a planetary scale. (If we time the drop right, or very wrong, with a heavy enough load or even most of the counterweight itself, such that it ends up eventually impacting Earth or any other inhabited lump of rock, it could well also be a matter of a planetary slingshot with effects on a biblical scale!) 172.70.86.37 10:53, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

Gravitational slingshot & Used for Sport shooting would also be a "not yet". Imagine a couple of millenia from now, where gravitational slingshoting is a sport, and is called shooting for one of many reasons. ok, fair. It's a stretch. But I felt I had to mention it. 162.158.222.142 12:45, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

In Futurama they use Gravitational slingshot for "Miniature" golf

This comic comes the same week as the release of a movie called Slingshot about the gravitational kind.

Isn't David supposed to be using a sling in his fight with Goliath, not a slingshot? That is, a long bit of material that you can use to throw a projectile with higher velocity? There seems to be similar confusion in describing a slingshot as using "mechanical advantage and rotation". A slingshot doesn't really involve rotation, nor does it involve mechanical advantage, really. Mechanical advantage is force amplification, right? And most slingshots don't amplify force, they simply are better than human bodies at delivering that force while moving quickly - that is, they amplify power. Maybe that's splitting hairs. 172.68.71.102 14:52, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

I see now that the text has been edited, distinguishing a sling as "an earlier form" of the slingshot. I still don't think that's accurate. They both accelerate a projectile, but they're not at all the same mechanism. Slingshots store deformation energy, and slings store kinetic energy. If we're talking ancient weapons that a slingshot is comparable to, it's far more like a bow than it is a sling. 172.71.22.58 15:16, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

Indeed, the etymologists tell us that "hand-held implement for throwing stones" is the original meaning of the word "sling", and it dates to 1300. Whereas "slingshot", with "hand catapult" given as a synonym (implying the cleft-stick version), dates only from 1849. The etymologists also tell us that, by the 14th century, "sling" had acquired the additional meaning of "loop for carrying heavy objects", and, by the 18th century, "cloth for suspending an injured arm". These meanings, I argue, gained prominence, while the sling (weapon) fell out of favor, in armies and in language. I daresay that a person with deir arm in a sling would shudder at the prospect of that arm being hurled at an oncoming foe. It appears to me that, at least in the USA where I reside, "slingshot" is now applied to both the "hand catapult" and the "sling (weapon)" to avoid confusion with the sling (object carrier). 172.68.23.190 15:42, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

I'm also in the US, but slingshot to me specifically evokes something where you store and release elastic energy. People often *hear* sling and think it's referring to a slingshot, because they're unfamiliar with an actual sling (weapon). Although slingshot and sling are certainly etymologically related, they are not technologically related. You might argue that a "gravitational slingshot" is a misnomer, in that its arc around a body is more akin to a sling than to a slingshot, I suppose. But a sling is not an earlier form of the "regular slingshot" in this comic. 172.71.31.46 16:56, 5 September 2024 (UTC)

I vote we use gravitational slingshots to hunt stray probes. Anyone wanna try taking down Voyager I? 172.69.90.237 14:57, 5 September 2024 (UTC)